ACCAN has submitted to the ACCC’s inquiry into NBN’s wholesale service standards. The purpose of the inquiry is to determine whether NBN wholesale service standard levels are appropriate, and to consider whether regulation is necessary to improve customer experiences.

ACCAN has long advocated for reform of existing customer service guarantees for connection times, fault repairs and network reliability. Currently, nbn’s wholesale service standard levels are set out in commercial agreements negotiated by nbn co with retail service providers (nbn’s Wholesale Broadband Agreement). This includes performance objectives and operational targets for nbn co’s products and services, requirements for improvements if targets aren’t met, and an arrangement that allows service providers (nbn’s wholesale customers) to claim compensation for their customers when nbn has failed to meet a service target.

In our submission, ACCAN argues that existing arrangements do not provide adequate consumer protections in a monopoly environment, and that creating new lines of accountability from nbn to service providers, through to end-users is more likely to create a network responsive to consumer needs. ACCAN advocates for new wholesale obligations that are subject to independent oversight to improve network reliability including new customer service standards with set timeframes, reliability measures consisting of performance benchmarks, and interim migration targets.